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Fort Loudoun was a British colonial-era fort located in what is now Monroe County, Tennessee, United States. Built in 1756 and 1757 to help garner Cherokee support for the British at the outset of the Seven Years' War, the fort was one of the first significant British outposts west of the Appalachian Mountains. The fort was designed by John William G. De Brahm, its construction was supervised by Captain Raymond Demeré, and its garrison was commanded by Demeré's brother, Paul Demeré. It was named for the Earl of Loudoun, the commander of British forces in North America at the time.〔Carroll Van West, "(Fort Loudoun )," ''Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture''. Retrieved: 1 December 2013.〕 Relations between the garrison of Fort Loudoun and the local Cherokee inhabitants were initially cordial, but soured in 1758 due to hostilities between Cherokee fighters and European settlers in Virginia and South Carolina. After the massacre of several Cherokee chiefs who were being held hostage at Fort Prince George, the Cherokee laid siege to Fort Loudoun in March 1760. The fort's garrison held out for several months, but diminishing supplies forced its surrender in August 1760. Hostile Cherokees attacked the fort's garrison as it marched back to South Carolina, killing more than two dozen and taking most of the survivors prisoner.〔 The fall of Fort Loudoun led to an invasion of Cherokee territory by General James Grant and an important peace expedition to the Overhill country by Henry Timberlake. The fort was reconstructed in the 20th century based on the detailed descriptions of its design by De Brahm and Demeré, and excavations conducted by the Works Progress Administration, the Fort Loudoun Association, and the Tennessee Division of Archaeology. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965, and is now the focus of Fort Loudoun State Park. ==Background== As early as 1708, British officials had discussed building a fort in Cherokee territory.〔James C. Kelly, “Fort Loudoun: A British Stronghold in the Tennessee Country,” East Tennessee Historical Society ‘’Publications’’, Vol. 50 (1978), pp. 72-92.〕 The British colony of South Carolina considered trade with the Cherokee crucial, but had struggled to regulate it due to the remoteness of most Cherokee towns. English traders frequently exploited the Cherokee, generating considerable resentment for the English among Cherokee leaders. The presence of a fort would be one means of regulating this trade.〔Carl Kuttruff, Beverly Bastian, Jenna Tedrick Kuttruff, and Stuart Strumpf, "( Fort Loudoun in Tennessee: 1756-1760: History, Archaeology, Replication, Exhibits, and Interpretation )," Report of the Tennessee Wars Commission and Tennessee Division of Archaeology, Research Series No. 17 (Waldenhouse Publishers, Inc., 2010). Accessed at the Tennessee State Library and Archives website, 3 December 2013.〕 Support for the fort increased considerably with the appointment of James Glen as South Carolina's governor in 1743. Glen believed such a fort would not only help regulate trade, but would be a stepping stone for expanding the British Empire into the interior of the continent.〔 The fort had some support among British officials, as it was the height of King George's War (1744–1748), and the French were threatening to expand into the area from their base at Fort Toulouse (in modern central Alabama). While the Cherokee were initially cold to the idea, the Overhill Cherokee (i.e., the Cherokees living on the western side of the Appalachian Mountains, in what is now Tennessee), who had been suffering attacks from French-backed rival tribes, invited South Carolina to build the fort in 1747.〔 Support for the fort faded at the end of the war, however.〔 The outbreak of the French and Indian War (the North American theater of the Seven Years' War) in 1754 brought revived interest in the construction of a fort. While the Cherokee were allies of the British, French influence within the tribe had grown considerably, and a faction of the tribe at Great Tellico had switched its support to the French. The British Crown provided Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia with funds for the construction of a fort, though Dinwiddie gave an insignificant amount to Governor Glen for the fort, and spent most of the remainder on Braddock's Expedition in 1755.〔 After this expedition ended in disaster, Dinwiddie turned to the Cherokee for assistance in defending Virginia's frontier. The Cherokee agreed to provide 600 warriors, and in return Virginia and South Carolina would construct a fort to protect Cherokee families while the men were away fighting.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Fort Loudoun (Tennessee)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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